


Like A Handprint On My Heart

by NotQuiteHumanAnymore



Series: Soulmates AU [1]
Category: The Wicked Years Series - Gregory Maguire, Wicked - Schwartz/Holzman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, KAYLA YOU ASKED FOR THIS, like the eyes, this hints back to the book and the musical, which i couldn't remember, with a few headcanons of my own
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-20
Updated: 2014-06-20
Packaged: 2018-02-05 10:06:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1814644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotQuiteHumanAnymore/pseuds/NotQuiteHumanAnymore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elphaba is Glinda's soulmate, and Glinda has one last chance to come clean and tell Elphaba.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning and The End

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks go to [ Kayla ](emeraldisthenewblack.tumblr.com) for asking me to go back to writing sad things.

There had been plenty of opportunities for Galinda to tell her, and she was watching her last chance slip away in front of her, as Elphaba resigned herself to her death.

“We can still leave!” She gasps out. “We can run away where no one will find us! Winkie country, maybe, or... or...” She didn’t even realize she was crying until Elphaba was standing in front of her, smiling sadly, and brushing the tears off of her cheeks. “I don’t want to lose you.” She choked out.

“You won’t lose me, Glinda.”

“You’ll be dead, Elphaba.”

“Depending on what you believe, we could always end up seeing each other again.” Glinda sobs explosively, and Elphaba gathers her into her arms, and the Words Left Unsaid hover in the air over their heads, like an executioners axe.

 

_Some Time Earlier_

 

Galinda Upland, of the Upper Uplands had yet to meet her soulmate, but she was confident that he would be gorgeous and influential and did she mention gorgeous? She applied to Shiz university, certain that she would find him there, or at least be able to cast a decent tracking spell to find him.

What she couldn't understand, however, was why his first words to her would be _You're not exactly what I expected, either_.

She was what everyone expected. She worked hard to make sure that everyone who heard of her knew exactly what kind of person she was. Her words, when they'd appeared over her heart the month before, had been so confusing that she'd promptly put them out of her mind in favor of the knowledge that she had a soulmate! They were out there somewhere, and she just had to find them! This was exciting and she wasn't going to let her soulmate's first words to her be a hindrance to her happiness.

~~~

Elphaba's words were pink.

Pink.

She stared at the mirror as her sister and father chattered away about something or another. Probably the school that Nessa wanted to go to. Elphaba wouldn't be attending, of course. They were right above her collarbone and....

Pink.

She'd never heard of that happening before. The writing was curved and larger than life, but Elphaba had yet to read what they actually said, too startled by the garish color. (If she wasn't mistaken, there was a hint of glitter in the words as well.) She'd never thought she'd get lucky enough to have a soulmate, and as her eyes finally took in the words, she realized that it was possible that she didn't want one anymore.

_She's practically phosphorescent!_

This was obviously a mistake.

 

The Soulmate Decree had been put in place when the Wizard first reached Oz. He'd decided that everyone deserved to be happy, so he cast a spell over all of Oz, that the first words a person's soulmate said to them appeared somewhere on their bodies on their sixteenth birthday.

Or so the story went. Elphaba covered her words with high necked dresses and careful hairstyles. Once she learned that she'd be attending Shiz University alongside Nessa, she took to learning how to cover her words with poultices and makeup, just in case.

As it became apparent that she would not be staying with Nessa, she realized that someone else would be her roommate. Her secret would be so much harder to keep.

And then it happened. A voice rose above the others, a high trill that was meant to be heard by all calling out:

“Green?” She turned to face the girl, who was smirking at her, both hands on her hips. She was ready with a retort on her lips, ready to fire at the practically perfect blonde. “She's practically phosphorescent!”

Her heart stopped and the words hidden by her sweater seemed to burn. She heard the squeaking of Nessa's chair moving away and she spun back to where Madame Morrible was wheeling her sister away, chattering to her brightly. The cacophony of emotions swirling inside her came to a head and she reached out her arms and screeched “NO!”

The chair spun easily into her waiting hands, and with four words Madame Morrible pushed the weight of her “gift” as she called it off of Elphaba's shoulders.

Her soulmate ceased to be at the front of her mind again.

 ~~~

Galinda was fuming. Not only did she not get into the program of her dreams because someone had to go and steal her thunder, but now she had to share a room with said thunder-stealer! It wasn't fair! Galinda kicked a chair across the room. The green girl entered after the chair hit the door, looking tired and excited, but when she saw Galinda that look was replaced by wariness and what appeared to be anger.

Now that wasn't fair! How could this girl judge Galinda before she even knew her? That was ridiculous! She turned her nose up at her new roommate.

“I was supposed to have a private room.” The girl turned to her in disbelief, looking at her from where she was bent, unpacking her suitcase. She raised an eyebrow and something in her deep brown eyes flashed.

“Yeah? Well you're not exactly what I expected, either.” She stood and stormed from the room, leaving a wide eyed and furious Galinda in her wake.

As the fury abated, she was left with one lingering thought: her soulmate... Her soulmate was not only a girl, but was the most insolent, downright mean-spirited girl that she'd ever had the misfortune to meet.

“Oh no.” She said weakly.

Little did she know that Elphaba was currently telling Nessarose the exact same thing.


	2. The Five Times Galinda Should Have Told Elphaba, and The One Time She Did

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What it says on the tin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All from Glinda's point of view, because I'm a sucker for a challenge, and Elphaba is too easy to write for me.  
> Some words were paraphrased from the musical lyrics, because I didn't want a bunch of rhyming sentences, so that's why it's all awkward in parts.

The Five Times She Should Have

 

_1: The Hat_

 

Elphaba's face was in it's typical closed off expression when Galinda approached her. She could hear Fiyero off to the side, laughing with her friends, but she didn't alter her course. After a moment, Elphaba started walking over to her as well.

“Listen, Galinda, Nessa and I were talking about you just now...” Elphaba looked nervous, like she was about to say something earth-shattering, or equally terrifying. Galinda was suddenly afraid of what words would come out of her roommates mouth.

“And I was just talking about you!” She interrupted. “I thought you might want to wear this hat to party tonight.” She held out the black, pointed monstrosity and Elphaba looked at it with wide eyes. “It's really—uh, sharp, don'tcha think?” The look on Elphaba's face was making Galinda nervous. Like, severe butterflies in her stomach, heart palpitationalizing more than she would have thought possible, face on fire nervous. “Y'know, black is this years pink. It's like you're made for each other! You’re both so smart!” _Haha get it? Because you’re brilliant?_ “So, uh, here! Out of the goodness of my heart!” She finished with a grin that would've blinded anyone else, shoving the hat into Elphaba’s hands. She ignored the part of her brain that said that she was giving her soulmate part of herself with the hat.

It became infinitely more difficult when Elphaba looked at her, something vulnerable and almost hopeful stirring in her brown eyes. Galinda's breath caught in her throat and she felt the words on the tip of her tongue.

_You're my soulmate._

She nodded once and ran away, back to Fiyero and the life that she understood, was familiar with.

She missed the sight of Elphaba running her fingertips over her collarbone and mouthing “phosphorescent” behind her.

 

_The After Party_

“So, Elphie, you mind if I call you Elphie?”

“Yes.”

“Elphie, now that we're friends, you're going to have to learn to fit in a little bit.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I'm going to make you popular! Look out, Shiz, because Elphie is gonna rock this world!” She giggled, masking her happiness at having an arm around Elphie's shoulders because really, it was hardly physical contact, nevermind that Elphie shifted into her grip easily.

“You really don't have to do that...”

“Too late! I'm already formulationalizing a plan to teach you everything I know. This is going to be so much fun!” She jumped down off of the bed, and turned to face Elphaba. “First things first: makeovers.”

“I... what?”

“You need a makeover! No more of this humdrum sweater dress and drab braid thing you've got going on.” She untied the plait, first, running her fingers through Elphaba's hair to get it out of the braid. Her hair was soft to the touch, and Galinda found herself spending more time than necessary making sure that it was straight and untangled. Then she took off Elphaba's spectacles, figuring that they were probably enchanted so that they took Elphie's notes for her, or something, because she'd seen Elphie without them plenty of times now, and she'd never needed them in their room.

This close, Galinda noticed that Elphaba's eyes weren't brown, like she'd initially thought, but actually closer to hazel. Well, not even hazel, but something infinitely more spectacular. There was a ring of gold around the irises, and a ring of emerald so dark that it nearly looked black around her pupils. Between the two was a mixture of dark purples and warm browns with flashes of blue in the mix, and it really should have looked like a mess, but on Elphaba, they looked enchanting.

Galinda pulled back before she could do something stupid.

“Hmm... The hat looked good on you--” Elphaba snorted, “No really, you pulled it off, and I have no clue how you managed it! That hat looked hideodeus on me!” Elphaba muttered something that sounded suspiciously like _nothing could look even remotely bad on you_ , but Galinda could have been projecting. “It looked good on you, but you need some color!”

“I clash with everything.” Elphaba said, as if repeating something she'd been forced to memorize. Galinda shot her a look that she hoped said that she absolutely wasn’t buying that.

“Wait! I've got it!” She ran to her vanity and cut half of the stem off of one of the pink roses she kept there at all times. She returned to Elphaba with it and placed it just behind her ear. “Pink goes with everything!” She spun around again and picked up a mirror, handing it to Elphaba. Then she stood back to look at her new friend—soulmate her heart cried—as Elphaba took in her appearance.

Elphaba's mouth was parted slightly, as if in awe of what she saw there. Her green skin was flushed with emerald, and she looked—she looked...

“Oh, Elphaba, look at you...” Galinda breathed, and Elphaba turned to look at her instead of her reflection. “You're beautiful!” Elphaba's hands fumbled with the mirror, and she stood quickly, setting it down on the bed behind her.

“I have to go.”

She was gone before Galinda could even call for her to wait. In the privacy of the empty room, she stared at the last place Elphie had been and whispered,

“You're my soulmate, you know.”

 

_In The Emerald City_

 

Glinda had almost managed to forget all about her strange feelings for Elphie, chalking them up to excitement at finding a friend that she could be herself around.

She knew she was lying, but she enjoyed being with Elphaba too much to care. Glinda had stopped slipping up and nearly telling Elphie about the words on her chest months ago, happy to just revel in the moment and laugh beside her best friend. As they danced through Oz and ran to see as many things as they could manage, Glinda felt like she could fly, just from the happiness that she saw on Elphaba's face.

They heard a voice advertising something called Wiz-O-Mania, and they couldn't pass that up, of course, so Glinda followed the voice for almost a block before she realized that Elphaba wasn't behind her. There were four and a half seconds of panic before she saw Elphaba gazing around herself in wonder. Glinda picked her way through the people and stopped in front of her friend.

“Elphie?” Elphaba met her eyes with a look so full of love and happiness that Glinda stopped breathing for a minute.

“No one's staring at me.” She said, her voice hushed with awe. “No one's laughing or pointing or protecting themselves against the evil eye, Glinda.” Glinda took her hand. “It's like I belong here.”

“Well, it sounds like people are starting to see you for who you truly are.”

“And who is that?”

“Someone magnificent and powerful and beautiful beyond compare, of course.” It was the second time that Glinda had called Elphaba beautiful, but this time she didn't run away, she just squeezed Glinda's hand and smiled.

“Unless they're comparing me to you. Then you'd win, no contest.” Elphie joked, and Glinda knew what she was supposed to say, but what she wanted to say was _Nope. You'll win, every time._

“Well, that's a given.” She chirped instead. “Now, come on! We'll be late for Wiz-O-Mania!”

Glinda wondered what it meant, that, after all of this time, she wanted to tell Elphie again. Just wanted to say that she'd always be more beautiful than Glinda, because she was Glinda's soulmate. It only made sense that Elphie would win in a beauty contest, because someone would have to outshine the sun to make Glinda Upland of the Upper Uplands fall in love with them.

She didn't say anything.

 

_ After The Wizard _

 

She'd only hold Elphaba back. Honestly, why was Elphie even asking Glinda to go with her? Why was she looking at Glinda like she was the most important thing in the world? Didn't she know that Glinda was a coward to the end? She was self-serving before she was anything else, and as much as she wanted to be selfish, and go with Elphaba, she knew she had to be selfless just this once. She had to let Elphaba go, let her have a chance at survival. She couldn't speak, because if she did one hundred and one confessions, one million questions, would come pouring from her throat, each worse than the last.

_Why do you have to go?_

_We could stay here together, just apologize and we can fight from the inside._

_I don't want you to go._

_Stay with me, please._

_I love you._

_Of course I'll come with you._

_Just ask me._

_Say the words and I'll do anything you want me to._

_You're my soulmate, Elphaba Thropp, and you deserve better than the likes of me._

So she choked back the lump of truth in her throat and tied a blanket tight around Elphaba's shoulders. Elphaba took her hand and rested it on her left collarbone with a sad smile, like she knew everything that Glinda wasn't saying and wanted to say the same things.

“I hope you're happy.” Glinda whispered, and in it she tried to say the hundreds of thousands of things that she was too afraid to.

 

_ Follow The Yellow Brick Road  
_

 

“Just follow that one road! The whole time!” She called after the girl in Nessarose's shoes. Her stomach twisted and she wanted to vomit with the force of her self loathing. She knew what the Wizard was going to ask Dorothy to do. He'd asked it of Glinda hundreds of times, and Glinda had given him hundreds of excuses.

But Elphaba would get away.

She had to.

And then, Elphaba, her stupid, beautiful soulmate was standing in front of Glinda, her face twisted in pain and the ridiculous hat Glinda had given her perched on her head.

“How could you?” Elphaba shouted.

Glinda deserved this.

 

+The One Time She Did

_Before Dorothy_

 

Glinda shuddered with the force of her anger and her misery. Elphaba shouldn't be forgiving her this easily. Glinda pushed out of her embrace and stood shaking in front of her.

“I should have told you this ages ago,” she sniffled. “You're... I...” She stopped another round of sobs and realized that she wasn’t going to be able to finish the sentence. So, rather than rely on her words--which had never failed her before, she pulled at the drooping neckline of her dress another inch and revealed the words that sat directly over her heart. She had all of her dresses made the same, so that the words were almost in view, as a way to torture herself, because with a flick of her wrist, or a different measurement, she could tell the world the truth, but she knows who she is, even if Elphaba's words say differently, and she knows that she's too much of a coward to ever come clean.

She watched Elphaba carefully, but she still only barely saw the flicker of pain in the other witch’s eyes. She didn’t move her gaze from Glinda’s words as she moved her hand to her mouth and licked the pad of her thumb.

“It was easier for everyone if they thought I was so evil that I didn’t have a soulmate.” Elphaba’s voice sounded raw and almost happy. She ran her thumb over her collarbone, revealing glittery pink words in Glinda’s own loopy handwriting.

“They’re pink.” Glinda said, startled almost enough to forget her sorrows. Elphaba laughed, halfway through the laughter became horrible, choking sobs.

Glinda had never seen her soulmate cry.

“Please come away with me.” She whispered, already knowing the answer.

“They’d never stop hunting me, Glinda.” Elphie’s voice was pitched to match Glinda’s own.

“You don’t have to die. You shouldn’t have to die.”

“I know. But it’s better this way.” Glinda reached out and whacked Elphaba on the side of the arm.

“You sound like a dime store novel!”She hiccoughed. “How is death better?”

“We’ll see each other again, Glinda, I promise.”

“Just because your father was a minister before he was a mayor doesn’t mean...” Glinda grumbled. Elphaba’s spine stiffened.

“You have to get out of here.”

“What? Elphie!” Then she heard it, too, the clattering of footsteps up the stairs. She clutched her friend’s arm, spinning the green girl around to face her. “Please, Elphie, I can’t live with out you.”

“You can, and you will.” Elphaba caressed Glinda’s cheek, and Glinda held her hand there, finally finding the courage to say the words that had eluded her every time she found she wanted to tell Elphaba the truth.

“I love you.”

Elphaba pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“And I love you.” Elphaba stepped back, and Glinda was frozen under the weight of her gaze. Elphaba whispered something else, and Glinda really couldn’t move. A wave of Elphaba’s hand cut them off from each other’s sight as a wall materialized between them.

All was silent...

And then...

 

A scream ripped itself through Glinda and for a moment she wondered why it hurt that badly. It was just a scream. The words on her heart began to burn again, and she realized that it hurt because the scream was Elphaba’s, and Elphaba was a part of Glinda that was being ripped away.

Glinda fell to the floor, and the wall melted.

Elphaba was gone.

It was only years later that she realized that her words weren't black, either. They were a dark emerald, like the color of the ring around Elphaba's irises, but by then, it was far too late to tell her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the lack of updates on The Price of Perfection, if any of my readers are out there, I had a spot of trouble with the pesky thing called writers block.  
> Both parts uploaded today because I didn't have decent internet yesterday.  
> Come say hi on [ Tumblr! ](effectively-immortal.tumblr.com)  
> As always, inspiration for this work goes to [ Kayla ](emeraldisthenewblack.tumblr.com) so yell at her not me.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are the food of creativity! Or come yell at me (with me?) at [ Tumblr! ](effectively-immortal.tumblr.com)


End file.
